'Khan Sir' Row: Bihar's Coaching Centre Rivalry is Now a Muslim vs Yadav Fight

What began as a dispute over Bihar Constable Exam result claims between two well-known coaching centres—Khan Global Studies and Gyan Bindu GS Academy in Patna's Musallahpur—has now acquired a communal colour.Khan Global Studies is owned by Faisal Khan, popularly known as 'Khan Sir', while Gyan Bindu GS Academy is run by Roshan Anand, who hails from the Yadav community. A section of people are now identifying Khan Sir as a Muslim and Roshan Anand as a Hindu. That wasn't the case before. Their colleagues and teachers who work in Musallahpur, however, tell The Quint that never before has such a rivalry been viewed through religious lens. Old, Unrelated Video of Educator 'Khan Sir' Shared With Misleading ClaimThe controversy allegedly began when a poster belonging to Khan Global Studies was hung over a Gyan Bindu signboard. Both coaching institutes are located just a stone's throw away from each other within the same campus in Musallahpur—a property that belongs to Kisan Cold Storage.The poster claimed that 12,000 candidates from the institute had qualified in the recent recruitment drive for 19,838 constable posts in Bihar Police. Gyan Bindu, however, claimed that 10,000 of its candidates had qualified in the exam.It was over this poster that an alleged attack took place at the Khan Global Studies centre at around 10 pm on 2 June. Khan Global Studies alleged that individuals associated with Gyan Bindu beat up their security guard, pelted stones at the coaching centre, and created ruckus upon Roshan Anand's instructions. Khan Sir was present at the coaching centre at the time.The Kadamkuan police arrested three people in connection with the incident, including Roshan Anand. Gunshots were also fired during the commotion. Although the police initially stated that no evidence of firing was found, an investigation was launched after a video of the gunfire went viral.The investigation led to the identification of two of Khan Sir's personal security guards, whom the police arrested and interrogated. During questioning, the guards admitted to the police that they had fired shots into the air at Khan Sir's behest. Based on this statement, the police registered a complaint against Khan Sir as well. However, he has not been arrested so far. In fact, the court has stayed his arrest. Meanwhile, Roshan Anand's bail plea was rejected. A teacher from Gyan Bindu alleged that while Roshan Anand was arrested soon after the FIR was filed, Khan Sir has not been arrested yet.The SHO of the Kadamkuan police station told The Quint: "I am willing to speak about what has transpired in this dispute so far, but only senior officials can comment on why the arrest hasn't happened and what will follow." Khan Sir, in the meantime, has filed a petition in the Patna High Court seeking to quash the FIR against him. The court has sought a response from the Bihar government by 13 June. The Coaching Industry’s Big Scam: How FIITJEE and Ed-Tech Are CollapsingWhile the controversy was initially seen as a battle for dominance between two coaching institutes, it has since taken on an identity dimension, with Khan's Muslim identity being highlighted and Roshan Anand increasingly being identified by his Yadav caste identity.Under the garb of professional rivalry, a section of people, especially on social media, are trying to create a narrative of Yadav vs Muslim binary. The Yadav-Muslim groups had long been a powerful vote bank of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Hindu Shiv Bhavani Sena, a Patna-based hardline Hindu organisation, in a video termed Khan as a 'jihadi'. "Khan Sir married a student he had taught. His classes lack any sense of culture, national education, or patriotism. He is a 'love jihadi', and his educational institute promotes 'love jihad'. The assets of such individuals should be investigated," the video asserted.Another right-wing propaganda handle on X also shared a collage featuring images of terrorist Ajmal Kasab wearing a kalava (sacred thread) alongside Khan sporting a tilak on his forehead, with the caption: “The Art of Fooling.” While some influencers did not explicitly frame the issue in terms of a Hindu-Muslim binary, they did side with Roshan Anand. Well-known YouTuber Manish Kashyap—known for his anti-minority comments—who was previously associated with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and contested the last Assembly election on a Jan Suraaj party ticket but lost—also criticised Khan Sir in several videos. This stands in stark contrast to three years ago, when he had interviewed Khan Sir and sung his praises. Kashyap had remarked then that the country needed many more teachers like him.Interestingly, during the COVID-19 pandemic—before Khan Sir's religious identity had become public—he had once mocked Muslims in a video by referring to them as ‘puncture repairers’.At that time, he was severely criticised for his anti-Muslim comment, but a section of Hindus came out in his support. A news channel even conducted an emotionally charged live interview with him. Questions were taken from the audience during the interview, with a majority of them being Hindus who expressed their support for Khan Sir.'Namak Haram', 'Burqa' & 'Ghuspaithiya': The Hate Factor in Bihar ElectionsKhan Sir had been the darling of national news channels for a long time. They would often take long interviews of him, and seek his comments on issues ranging from local to international. The same channels and media outlets have suddenly stopped using his moniker—and instead started calling him Faisal Khan. Bihar’s BJP MLA and former minister Neeraj Kumar Singh too criticised Khan Sir. “This 'Khan' fellow—the one known as Faisal Khan—is a total fraud. Even his own family back in Uttar Pradesh says he isn't a teacher... he is a fake. He pays little attention to academics and spends most of his time engaging in political posturing and delivering dramatic speeches."“This matter has been given a completely political hue. Everyone knew that Khan Sir is a Muslim, yet he was never identified primarily by that identity. The defining feature of this entire controversy is that it involves a Yadav and a Muslim. Consequently, the entire right-wing machinery is attempting to use this issue to drive a wedge between Yadavs and Muslims,” says Professor Pushpendra, a former dean at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. “Had this same controversy involved Khan Sir and someone from a different caste, it wouldn't have flared up to this extent,” he told The Quint.What is striking about the communal row over Khan Sir is that it is perhaps the first of its kind in Musallahpur and the adjoining areas. The region has long served as a major coaching hub, and Hindu-Muslim polarisation narratives have never existed as major issues per se.Neeraj Kumar, who spent about five years in Musallahpur preparing for government jobs and is currently employed in a public sector company, told The Quint, “Caste and religion have never had a place in the coaching institutes here, and there is no such angle to this controversy either.” While a majority of private coaching teachers in Musallahpur are Hindus, and only a few are Muslims, they maintain a secular ethos in their coaching institutes and practice secularism in their public lives. Delhi Coaching Centre Tragedy | Public Memory is Short. Nothing Will Ever ChangeWhen this reporter visited Khan Sir’s office for an interview last year, there was a statue of Budhha placed near his table. Every year, on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, women aspirants tie him rakhis. A photo of his arms full of rakhis goes viral every year.Guru Rahman, who has been teaching for the past two decades, displays images of Goddess Saraswati and Lord Hanuman in his coaching centre’s office. A poster linked to the cow-protection campaign Gau Samman Aahwan Abhiyan is also stuck on one of his office walls."Targeting anyone on the basis of religion is wrong. India belongs to everyone. I highly condemn this. How can anyone bring religion in dispute of result claim? I have never seen this before in Musallahpur."Guru Rahman, TeacherShailendra Kumar, who taught at Khan Global Studies for five years and currently runs his own coaching centre, echoed Rahman. "There has never been a Hindu-Muslim narrative among the teachers, nor did we ever sense one while teaching at Khan ji's institute. The entire controversy is essentially about asserting dominance regarding results. This should not be happening," Kumar said. Even among aspirants, communal narratives have not mattered much as they take classes from different teachers at the same time as well share their notes for the best results.According to Nirjala Singh, a government job aspirant and student at Khan Global Studies, “This should not be seen from a communal angle. Both teachers are good at teaching.”The growing polarisation has left many concerned about the impact this would have on students' preferences and their eventual performance. Pushpendra, nevertheless, questions whether a communal divide would emerge among the students as easily. "This is because aspirants study under multiple teachers, and the pursuit of a government job dominates their mindset to such an extent that they do not view a teacher through the lens of whether they are Hindu or Muslim,” he told The Quint.(Umesh Kumar Ray is an independent journalist covering news and politics in Bihar.)

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'Khan Sir' Row: Bihar's Coaching Centre Rivalry is Now a Muslim vs Yadav Fight

A section of people are now identifying Khan Sir as a Muslim and Roshan Anand as Hindu. That wasn't the case before.

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